At Mass yesterday --- Solemnity of the Mother of God--- I was thinking about both continuity and change.
Continuity..Mother of God... Revelation 12.... Ephesus..
Change ... used to be "Feast of the Circumcision" ... so clear about Jesus' emphatic maleness and His emphatic Jewishness and the first shedding of His blood. We are squeamish or silent about this nowadays.
Continuity... the Roman Canon *Eucharistic Prayer #1"... my son Ben remarks, "Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, what's up with that?" Popes. ... "Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia, what's up with that?" Martyrs.
Change... there was an O.T. reading, from Numbers... There never were OT readings like that in the Ordo Vetus.... but this was harkening faithfully with Moses' blessings... so is this Continuity or Change?
? ( agree that we lost a lot with the vandalism of the Liturgy, and need to recover it. I do sing with the Latin Choir. I do love the Tradition. Passionately. But I disagree with you that now it's 97% different. Christ is 100% there, and 100% the same. Yesterday, Today, and Forever.... Tagline for you, dear RitaOK, and for all who are dear to you.
Many people pray II Chronicles 7:14 "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
It's one thing to pray, but more important to "turn from wicked ways".
Thank you, Mrs.D. I appreciate the tagline, very much.
My stated percentage was rather arbitrary, so far as accuracy, but the sentiment for what is seen and heard more broadly in the USA and in the West just might reach that awful percentage, indeed.
As you point out, the Holy Eucharist is quite recognizable, certainly, and accounts for 100% of what little overall, remains miraculous, and in continuity, saved from “change”.
However, I am holding my breath on even that.
In fact, God works in magnificent ways, in this era of decline. Less is truly more, even as teaching broadly begins to fail utterly, and the vandalism to the Holy Mass is nearly complete, becoming milquetoast at best with the consistent sleeper homilies, having all to do with anything handy, but not the Readings, and mostly liberal RCIA materials and curriculum taught by liberals, or the faithless, or the compromisers in many, many parishes.
Still, the reliance on Holy Communion ever increases, speaking knowledge mystically, to even greater effect, and growing exponentially with the increasingly grave losses to the faith and to the Church Militant.
There are few “good” spiritual experiences and quite a climb to even access those priests and parishes. You are fortunate, but American Catholics are mostly starving. It seems sometimes to me a mockery to even pray for vocations.
Vocations into what? This? I mostly don’t think so.